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Friday, December 9, 2011

Gallup poll shows anti-incumbent sentiment at all-time high

A new Gallup survey shows that more than three-quarters of registered voters think most members of Congress do not deserve to be reelected – the highest such number in the 19 years that Gallup has asked the question. (GALLUP)
Seventy-six percent of registered voters in the Gallup survey said they don’t think most lawmakers deserve to be reelected, while 20 percent said they believe most members of Congress do deserve reelection.
The anti-incumbent mood is shared by independents and members of political parties alike: 82 percent of independents, 75 percent of registered Republicans and 68 percent of registered Democrats said most members don’t deserve to be reelected. Gallup surveyed 903 registered voters from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1; the poll has a margin of error of four percentage points.
The percentage of voters saying most members do not deserve reelection has been climbing since 2002, when an all-time low of only 29 percent said that most lawmakers should be booted.
Notably, anti-incumbent sentiment has risen sharply since May: The current high of 76 percent is up 13 percentage points from where it stood seven months ago at 63 percent.
As is typically the case, when it comes to reelecting one’s own U.S. representative, voters have a rosier view. Fifty-three percent of registered voters surveyed in the latest Gallup poll said their own House member deserves reelection while 39 percent said otherwise.
Those numbers represent a slide downward from May, when 57 percent said their member of Congress deserves reelection, although the shift is not as marked as the increase in broader pessimism toward Congress as a whole.
Taken together with recent surveys showing the congressional approval rating at a dismal 9 percent, the Gallup poll is a reminder to members that voters are deeply dissatisfied with the 112th Congress, which, as The Post’s Ben Pershing notes, will this month wrap up one of the least productive sessions in recent years.